The Buffalo Soldier

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful look into the live of everyday people
Review: This book takes hold of the reader, right from the first page. It tells the story of everyday people living through the hard parts of life. It is strong story of family, and the fact that in todays world what makes a family has changed.

Being from Vermont perhaps jades my love of the book, but I've got to say that Mr Bohjalian know this State, and understands the people who live in it.

Rating:
Summary: ALLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL
Review: This novel captures the human element well indeed as a married couple try to replace two daughters lost by bringing in a young boy to live with them. The construct of this story was unique (for me) as each chapter was specifically about one character in the story where you got to know and appreciate every single person involved. It was a great innovation to me and helped in the development of the story.

This is a true-to-life story of what happens to individuals and families when infidelity occurs that disrupts the lives of many people and puts them on the avenue of chaos and doubt. A good read.

Rating:
Summary: Good one
Review: Two years after Laura and Terry's drowns in a bad flood, they decide to become foster parents to a 10 year old african american boy, Alfred. Laura comes to consider Alfred, as her own faster than Terry. I throught the book was good, it shows us that love can make anything happen.

Rating:
Summary: The Buffalo Soldier
Review: Well written and believable. This is a touching and thought provoking story of a young foster chld who finds love, pride in himself and direction for his life in a small hamlet in Vermont. It touches on the topic of bigotry in this child's new life and how he learns the meaning of family.

Rating:
Summary: Heart-wrenching and thought-provoking
Review: What a melancholy tale! Halfway through the book, I honestly didn't know if I'd be able to finish it-I was too afraid that something even more devastating was going to happen. But Bohjalian's writing compelled me to carry on, and I'm glad I did.

Like life, this novel is not neat and tidy, but bittersweet. Certain loose ends do not get tied. The characters are complex and likeable-even though Terry is cheating on his wife you feel a certain empathy for him. Both he and Laura are just doing what they can in order to deal with the indelible grief that afflicts them.

Ultimately, this is a story about healing, about perservering. If you take the time to work your way through the painful stuff, you will feel rewarded by the end.

Rating:
Summary: A stout book
Review: When I first picked this book up, I wasn't quite sure if I would be interested in reading it. It sounds so depressing ~~ a couple loses their twin daughters to a flash flood and two years later, they end up being foster parents of an African-American boy. Then shortly after they become foster parents, the couple go through tumultous times in their marriage due to the husband's infidelity. It doesn't sound like an uplifting book at all. And I wasn't quite sure where the Buffalo Soldier came in.

After reading a few pages ~~ I was hooked. Laura and Terry, the couple becomes as real to me as the neighbors. Alfred, the foster son, who the story is centered around becomes the kid everyone would love to have. Even Phoebe, Terry's girlfriend, has a voice and she is just as real as the other characters in the book. And throughout the book is little intercepts of letters from The Buffalo Soldier, who did exist during the Wild West days. The Buffalo Soldiers were given their names from the Native Americans, who admired them. They were African-Americans sent to capture/kill the natives while protecting the settlers out west. Alfred reads the book that the neighbor professor had given him and he models himself after one of the soldiers. This soldier is a man of virtue ~~ a role model.

This book is full of feelings and emotions ~~ it is a book I did not regret picking up. It is a book about life and death, survival and love, gentleness and hatred, fear and sorrow. It's a complex book ~~ one that takes some time to let sink in and it's just as good as The Midwives, which is his first book. It's about healing and letting go and forgiveness. It is an inspiring book ~~ a book of stout character. One that I will not soon forget!

5-18-03